Raspberry Pi Guide

Push sensor data from a Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi runs full Linux with Python — the simplest possible EasyBoard integration. If you can pip install requests, you can push data to a live dashboard in a few minutes.

Step 1 — Store your credentials

Create a .env file in your project folder and add it to .gitignore. Your write token never goes in your Python files.

.env

# .env  ← add to .gitignore
EASYBOARD_DASHBOARD_ID=abc123xyz456
EASYBOARD_WRITE_TOKEN=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx

Add .env to .gitignore first

Run echo ".env" >> .gitignore before creating the file.

Step 2 — Install libraries

bash

pip install requests python-dotenv

Step 3 — The update helper

Save this as easyboard.py in your project. Call update_tile() from anywhere in your code.

easyboard.py

import os
import requests
from dotenv import load_dotenv

load_dotenv()  # reads .env in the current directory

DASHBOARD_ID = os.environ["EASYBOARD_DASHBOARD_ID"]
WRITE_TOKEN  = os.environ["EASYBOARD_WRITE_TOKEN"]
BASE_URL     = f"https://easyboard.live/api/d/{DASHBOARD_ID}/tiles"


def update_tile(tile_id: str, value) -> None:
    """Push a new value to an EasyBoard tile."""
    try:
        resp = requests.patch(
            f"{BASE_URL}/{tile_id}",
            headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {WRITE_TOKEN}"},
            json={"value": str(value)},
            timeout=10,
        )
        if resp.status_code == 429:
            print("Rate limit reached — slow down updates or upgrade your plan")
        elif resp.status_code != 200:
            print(f"Update failed: HTTP {resp.status_code}")
    except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:
        print(f"Network error: {e}")

Step 4 — Read sensors and push

sensor.py

import time
import random  # replace with your actual sensor library
from easyboard import update_tile  # assuming you saved the helper above

TEMP_TILE_ID   = "your-temperature-tile-id"
STATUS_TILE_ID = "your-status-tile-id"

while True:
    # Replace with actual sensor reads, e.g.:
    # from gpiozero import MCP3008
    # sensor = MCP3008(channel=0)
    temp = round(random.uniform(20.0, 25.0), 1)

    update_tile(TEMP_TILE_ID, temp)       # "23.4"
    update_tile(STATUS_TILE_ID, "Online") # any text

    time.sleep(60)  # update every minute

Running automatically

Two options for keeping your script running after a reboot:

Cron (simple, for periodic scripts)

bash

# Run your script every 5 minutes — add to crontab with: crontab -e
*/5 * * * * /usr/bin/python3 /home/pi/my_project/sensor.py >> /home/pi/sensor.log 2>&1

systemd (recommended for continuous scripts)

ini

# /etc/systemd/system/easyboard-sensor.service
[Unit]
Description=EasyBoard sensor pusher
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=pi
WorkingDirectory=/home/pi/my_project
EnvironmentFile=/home/pi/my_project/.env
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 sensor.py
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=30s

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable with: sudo systemctl enable easyboard-sensor && sudo systemctl start easyboard-sensor

EnvironmentFile in systemd

The EnvironmentFile= line in the service file loads your .env variables automatically — the same ones your Python script reads with load_dotenv(). No need to hardcode anything in the service file.

What's next

Secrets & Security

The full guide to storing credentials, including the proxy pattern for larger setups.

→

API Reference

Every endpoint — create tiles, batch updates, and more.

→